Theatre with a side of life
Goodman Theatre presents SWING STATE. Playwright Rebecca Gillman pens an intriguing tale of pandemic wreckage. Gillman sets her story in rural Wisconsin in 2021. The show opens in palpable silence as Mary Beth Fisher (Peg) cracks eggs into a bowl. She methodically beats in the flour. The ordinariness of her actions are momentarily interrupted by the ...
Chicago Shakespeare Theater presents the World Premiere of the musical, THE NOTEBOOK. An old woman has Alzheimers. Her husband faithfully reads to her daily from a notebook. It describes the love story of their life. His hope is the words and memories will bring her back to him. Nicholas Sparks wrote the best selling novel in ...
Broadway in Chicago, in conjunction with Marc Platt * Universal Stage Productions * The Araca Group * Jon B. Platt * David Stone, present the Tony Award-winning WICKED. ‘Good news! Good news! Look there is Glinda’… and Elphaba! The witches of Oz are back in Chicago! And ‘Thank Goodness’! These witches were first introduced by L. ...
Idle Muse Theatre presents the World Premiere of THE STRANGE CASE OF DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE. Playwright Michael Dalberg reimagines and expands on the familiar story of a mild-mannered doctor transforming into a raging monster. Dalberg’s tale has all the same characters. Yet, in this version, Dr. Jekyll (played by an impressive Brandi Jiminez Lee) ...
Goodman Theatre, in association with Center Theatre Group, presents The Second Stage Theater Production of CLYDE’S. Playwright Lynn Nottage has penned a helluva comedy! Four ex-cons have struggled to find work after their incarceration. They each have landed a job at Clyde’s, a diner on the Interstate. The owner, Clyde, is an ex-felon and a ...
Lyric Opera of Chicago presents the United States premiere of a production by Komische Oper Berlin FIDDLER ON THE ROOF. Tradition. Tradition….. Tradition! A Jewish man grapples with religious customs, political oppression and the independence of his grown-up daughters. He asks God for guidance in making life decisions. The familiar story, based on Sholem Aleichem stories ...
Steppenwolf Theatre Company presents the Chicago premier of Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright James Ijames’ fantastical play THE MOST SPECTACULARLY LAMENTABLE TRIAL OF MIZ MARTHA WASHINGTON. Ijames knows how to tell a story! His thoroughly entertaining tale imagines a fever delirious Martha Washington being confronted by her slaves. The underlying premise is the actual provision in George Washington’s will. ...
Lifeline Theatre presents MISS HOLMES RETURNS. A pandemic, the Trump administration, and six years have passed since Playwright Christopher Walsh (no relation) premiered “Miss Holmes”. Walsh has a clever twist on the legendary characters created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. He has made them female! Walsh imagines Sherlock and Watson as women detectives navigating their profession under the ...
Babes with Blades Theatre Company, in partnership with the University of Illinois Chicago’s Disability Cultural Center, presents RICHARD III. The Babes take on William Shakespeare’s tale of one man’s bloody and ruthless climb to the throne. In BWBTC fashion, the show starts and ends with the 13-member ensemble battling it out. Fight director Maureen Yasko impressively ...
Music Theater Works presents ZORRO the Musical. An anonymous sword fighter defends a village from the persecution of tyranny. The legend of Zorro, a black masked super hero, is well known. The actual backstory is less familiar. Isabel Allende’s pulp novel is the foundation for ZORRO the Musical. The creative team, Stephen Clark (book, lyrics), Helen ...